ABR?This is a PS to yesterday's post and is taken from an ITN report
Police chiefs were "sickened and disappointed" after Rangers fans ran amock through Manchester.
More than 100,000 supporters had travelled from Glasgow for their team's Uefa Cup final against Zenit St Petersburg.
Many had been drinking all day and violence erupted at around 7.30pm when a big screen which should have show the match failed.
Greater Manchester Police said a total of 42 people had been arrested during the night including three for ticket touting.
Calm was restored after five hours of running battles between fans and riot police but the city centre streets are still strewn with rubbish, cans of beer and broken glass.
Rangers lost the final 2-0 after a lacklustre display at the City of Manchester Stadium but the event was marred by the violence away from the ground.
Assistant Chief Constable Justine Curran of Greater Manchester Police said: "A minority of thugs have overshadowed what should have been a great occasion.
"I'
ve watched them commit damage, assault my officers and I'm really sickened and disappointed."
Beer was on tap from off-licences with supporters carrying crates of cheap lager around - Tesco opened at 7am, 18 hours before kick-off.
Excitement and alcohol levels mounted all day with some fans spending hundreds of pounds on travel and hotels just to watch the game in the fan zones.
Throughout the day the atmosphere had been friendly - but when a "technical hitch" hit the screen in Piccadilly Gardens, many fans, already heavily drunk, turned nasty.
The broken big screen was pelted with bottles, as were riot police as they moved in to try to quell the trouble.
Police and council officials blamed a "minority" of fans for the violence.
Rangers fans blamed the local council's "shambolic" organisation, but another said the behaviour of his fellow supporters left him "ashamed to be a Scotsman".
Mind you if I had travelled all the way to Manchester, with no ticket for the match and relying on an officially provided big screen which subsequently went on the blink I would have been high on the Richter Scale of Pissedoffedery. Any 'sickness' and 'disappointment' might better have been reserved for the screen operators rather than a mild over reaction by travelling fans.
An apology is surely called for?
The only happy man will be the non-fan spotted (in deep cover) at Waverley Street watching the Ranger supporters head hopefully southwards-his tee shirt said ABR.
ABR ? Then I remembered the Souvenir of Scotland shirts I had seen in Embra at the time of the Rugby World Cup 'Anybody But England'
Dead On as they say in Norn Iron.Labels: Anyone but England, Rangers
